


It’s Vintage

by things_that_matter



Series: CMBYN: Life with Ollie [25]
Category: Call Me By Your Name (2017), Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types, Call Me by Your Name - André Aciman
Genre: Discipline, Domestic Fluff, Family Drama, Family Feels, Family Fluff, M/M, Punishment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:34:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29094339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/things_that_matter/pseuds/things_that_matter
Summary: Ollie has set his sights on a particular item of Elio’s, but his super unfair big brother won’t let him have it. Will Ollie be able to resist temptation?
Relationships: Oliver/Elio Perlman
Series: CMBYN: Life with Ollie [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2094873
Comments: 12
Kudos: 17





	It’s Vintage

**Author's Note:**

> References things only mentioned in the movie, and other things mentioned only in the book, but it isn’t dependent on any previous knowledge.

“Don’t all heads talk, Elio?” Ollie wanted to know. 

Elio was annoyed the moment he heard the question, before he even looked up from his book, because he knew what he would see. He finally cast his gaze toward his brother’s voice, and it was confirmed. 

“Ollie, I asked you not to wear that shirt,” he said with false patience in his voice. 

“Why not though?” Ollie wanted to know. 

Elio counted to ten in his head. It didn’t help, so he tried counting to twenty but was interrupted. 

“Why not?” Ollie still wanted to know. 

“Because, it’s too big. It’s almost too big for me, and it’s entirely too big for you,” Elio explained. Again. 

“Yeah, but I just want to wear it at home so it doesn’t matter,” Ollie explained in return. 

“And besides, Talking Heads was one of my favorite bands,” Elio explained. Again. 

“Yeah but you said ‘ _was._ ’ They aren’t even together anymore,” Ollie explained in return. 

“It’s vintage, Ollie!” Elio explained. Again. He could hear the impatience creeping into his own voice, and he wondered why Ollie couldn’t hear it as well. _If he knew what was good for him, he’d back off,_ Elio thought. 

“Yeah that just means it’s old. It’s an old T-shirt and that’s even more reason why it should be fine if I wear it,” Ollie explained. His teacher praised him for his persistence, but his brother didn’t seem all that impressed by it, Ollie noticed. 

Elio narrowed his eyes. He slowly, carefully, with great deliberation, placed his book, face down on the end table beside his chair. He watched Ollie’s eyes widen as he stood and walked toward his little brother. But before Ollie knew what was happening, Elio had grabbed the bottom of the shirt, pulled it up, up, up, and off. Leaving Ollie standing in the middle of the room in nothing but his underwear and a scowl. The two brothers stood glaring at one another. 

Oliver, who had been watching the entire scene unfold, half expected to see a tumbleweed roll by. He laughed, loud and full. He couldn’t help it. 

“It’s not funny!” Elio and Ollie both said together.

Oliver looked at them, one tall, one small, but otherwise looking almost exactly alike, save the fact that the small one was in his underwear. 

“It’s a little funny,” Oliver said simply. 

When no one said anything more, Oliver added, “Ollie, go get dressed, gunslinger.”

“Fine!” the little boy grumbled and headed toward his room. 

“I’ve had it with him,” Elio muttered, carrying the shirt with him over to where he was reading. 

“I know,” Oliver said, smiling. 

Elio tossed himself down into the chair, and traded the shirt for his book. He tried to continue reading, but he was too irritated to focus. 

“It’s not only about the shirt,” Elio muttered. 

Oliver looked up from his own work, knowing that Elio needed to vent to him. 

“What’s it about?” Oliver asked. He thought he sounded a bit like a therapist. 

“It’s about him not listening to me! If this was your shirt and you told him not to wear it, he wouldn’t. But this is the third time I’ve had this same conversation with him,” Elio groused. 

“Do you want _me_ to tell him not to wear it?” Oliver offered. 

“No!” Elio muttered. “That’s the entire point. He should listen to me.” 

“Maybe if you explained to him why…” Oliver began, but he was quickly interrupted. 

“I did. I’ve given him many reasons,” Elio insisted. 

“You gave him reasons, but you didn’t tell him why. Not really,” Oliver observed. 

Elio didn’t have a reply to that, so he turned his attention back to his book, sighing extravagantly. He didn’t see that Oliver smiled at him for a long moment before turning back to his own work. Oliver would never say so, but he thought Elio was beautiful when he was angry. The line of his jaw became more defined, a splash of heat fell over cheeks. 

The following morning, Oliver woke to the sound of someone sniffling near his ear. At first he thought Elio had come down with a cold, but as he became more alert, he remembered that Elio had to go to campus today to teach a few extra piano lessons that he’d rescheduled. That meant that there was only one person it could be. He opened his eyes to see that, indeed, Ollie was standing beside his bed watching him sleep, sniffling tearfully. Oliver could see that he’d been crying. As he took in the pitiful demeanor of the little boy, he felt bad that he’d slept later than Ollie.

“What’s wrong, Ollie?” Oliver asked. 

“Nothing,” Ollie whined, beginning to cry again. 

“Hmmmm,” Oliver said. “It looks like something’s wrong,” he observed. 

Ollie shook his head, “Nuh uh.” 

“Okay, then let’s go get breakfast,” Oliver said. “You go take the puppy out, and I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

Oliver quickly dressed and went out to see about breakfast, but he found Ollie sitting in a kitchen chair with his head lying on the table. He could hear Ollie crying, could see his little back heaving with sobs. Something was clearly wrong. Oliver noticed that Ollie was resting his head on some fabric, but it wasn’t a pillow. It was white. It looked like a white T-shirt. The situation began to clarify itself. 

“Ollie, is that Elio’s Talking Heads shirt?” Oliver asked. 

Ollie lifted his head and looked at Oliver with tears streaming down his face, nodding miserably. 

Oliver could now see splashes of green on the shirt, and he cringed internally. _Not good_ , he thought. 

“Let’s see it,” Oliver said gently, and Ollie held the shirt up for him. Oliver took it, holding it out to study it. 

“Is this a popsicle?” Oliver asked.

“Yeah,” Ollie was fully wailing now. 

Oliver felt he should scold Ollie at the very least, but he couldn’t. Ollie didn’t need to hear it from Oliver, because he already knew he’d made a grievous mistake. 

“Elio’s going to hate me,” Ollie sobbed. 

Oliver placed his hand gently on top of Ollie’s head. “Elio is going to be upset that you didn’t respect him or his property enough to obey him, but he is not going to hate you,” Oliver said with certainty in his voice. 

“He WILL,” Ollie gasped, trembling. 

Oliver offered a sympathetic smile. “I know it feels that way, but he won’t,” he reassured. 

“How do...” Ollie paused to wipe his eyes and sniffle, “you know?” he finished his question. 

“Because I know how much Elio loves you, Ollie,” Oliver stated, tousling the hair under his still resting hand. Ollie didn’t look the least bit convinced. 

“Ollie, I think I can get this out,” Oliver said, and he watched hope bloom on the little boy’s face, making him hate to add the next part of his sentence, but he did. “But, even if we get it out, you are still going to have to tell Elio about it. Understand?” 

Ollie began crying again. “Why??” he bawled. 

“Because, Ollie, if we got the stain out and just returned it without telling him, that would be dishonest. It would be like lying. We can’t do that to Elio. You have to tell him what you did, and be honest with him,” Oliver said. 

“He’s going to be mad though!” Ollie cried. 

“Maybe. Let’s go work on this stain, okay?” Oliver said, holding out a hand, which Ollie took, and they walked into the laundry room. 

Oliver showed Ollie how to rub the stain with the laundry stick, and Ollie rubbed and rubbed. 

“Okay, good. Now we will wash it in cold water. You want to always wash stains in cold water in case it doesn’t come out completely, you can try again. If you use hot water, it sets the stain and makes it much harder to remove,” Oliver explained.  
Ollie nodded as if this were fascinating information, and then he tossed the shirt into the washer. Oliver held him up so he could reach the dials and buttons, and showed him how to start the washer. 

After they ate breakfast and did some chores, they went back to check on the shirt. Ollie’s face broke into a wide smile, relieved by what he saw. The stain was completely gone. But, he became newly upset when he remembered that he still had to tell his big brother what he’d done. He dreaded it all day, but he didn’t cry any more about it. Oliver didn’t bring it up again, either, and Ollie was glad. He didn’t want to be reminded of his unspeakable crime. 

When Elio came home, before he could even put his things away, Ollie approached him, hesitantly. “I need to talk to you,” he said, and his voice was shaky. Oliver went to the kitchen table to grade papers. This way, he wasn’t involved in the conversation, but would be nearby if he was needed. 

Elio could see that something was wrong with his brother, and that he was trying not to cry. He also could tell by Ollie’s tone that he’d done something wrong and was probably in trouble. He could see that Oliver was casually grading papers, so it was something he hadn’t handled himself, which only meant... Elio sighed and went to sit on the sofa, Ollie climbing up beside him. 

“Okay, I’m ready,” Elio said, bracing himself. “Let’s hear it.” 

Ollie looked toward Oliver who just briefly looked up from his work and gave him an almost imperceptible but reassuring nod, then went back to his grading. Ollie took a deep breath, and began. “I wore your Talking Heads shirt this morning because you weren’t here and I got green popsicle juice on it,” and here Ollie started crying. 

Elio felt his heart sink, not because of how sad Ollie was, but because he lost a shirt that meant so much to him. “Ollie!” Elio said. He wasn’t shouting, but his displeasure was evident. He was so upset about the shirt. “That shirt was important to me, Ollie. And, I told you not to wear it!” his voice was raw with emotion, making Ollie cry harder. Elio continued, “I wore that shirt the summer that I met Oliver. It was the summer I grew up and became an adult. The summer I understood who I was, and what I wanted in life, and who I wanted in my life. It was the summer that Dad and I became friends rather than merely father and son. That shirt _meant_ something to me, Ollie, and now it’s ruined,” Elio felt dizzy and breathless. He noticed that Ollie was climbing down from the sofa and walking away. But, he didn’t even care. He didn’t want to talk about it anyway. 

A moment later, Ollie was back. “We got the stain out though,” Ollie said, handing Elio the shirt. Elio held it up and looked at it. He felt his eyes stinging, and he held the shirt to his face, taking a few deep breaths. Remembering. _Remembering_. Finally, he lifted his face again and looked at Ollie, who was standing before him waiting to see what would happen next. 

“Thank you for telling me the truth, Ollie. I know you probably wanted to put the shirt back and not tell me, but it means a lot that you wanted me to know the truth,” Elio said, and it did.

Ollie took a step closer and hugged him. “Thanks for telling me the truth, too,” Ollie answered. Elio was confused for a moment, but then Ollie elaborated. “I thought you didn’t want me to wear it just because it was too big for me or because it was vintage. Now that I know how special it is to you, I won’t bother it anymore.” 

Elio felt guilty then. He _had_ been a little bit dishonest with his brother, hiding his reasons. Making up shallow reasons rather than exposing his feelings and the memories attached to the shirt.

“I probably should have told you the truth,” Elio admitted. “Let’s just go put this up, okay?” 

Ollie nodded, and they walked down to his room and pulled the box out of the closet. Before Elio returned the shirt to the box, he looked through it. Elio looked at the vinyl album with the single “Love My Way” by The Psychedelic Furs. He could still see Oliver dancing to it. He looked at his yellow and blue Invicta backpack, and the picture of Oliver and himself riding bikes together. He looked at the postcard on which Oliver had written ‘Cor _cordium,_ _heart_ _of_ _hearts, I've never said anything truer in my life to anyone._ _’_ Ollie was looking at the items, too, and Elio knew that one day, he would share all of these memories with Ollie. When he was a little older. 

Ollie saw something light blue in the bottom of the box. “Can I see it?” Ollie asked, pointing. 

Elio nodded his consent, and Ollie pulled the item out of the box and could now see that it was a light blue, billowy, oversized, button down shirt. Ollie’s eyes grew wide. He’d never seen anything so beautiful. 

“Can I wear this?” he asked, his voice reverent. 

“NO!” Elio said, and he was surprised to hear Oliver’s voice in unison to his, saying the same thing. He hadn’t even known Oliver had followed them back and now stood in the doorway. 

Ollie smiled at the two of them looking at one other with so much love for each other.

Oliver came over and gently took the shirt away from Ollie and returned it to the box. 

“That’s _vintage_ ,” he explained, but he was using air quotes, and Ollie understood. 


End file.
